Privacy Policy

Who is the Data Controller and the Data Processor for the personal information you provide to the National Education Nature Park & Climate Action Awards programme?

The National Education Nature Park programme is an initiative commissioned by the Department for Education. The Department for Education are therefore the data controller for any personal information that you provide when taking part in the National Education Nature Park programme.

To deliver the programme, the Department for Education are working with a number of partners who will act as Data Processors for the personal information that you provide. The Department for Education is responsible for determining the purposes and means by which these data processors will process your personal data, but broadly speaking, this will be for the purpose of delivering the National Education Nature Park programme.

Appropriate Data Processing Agreements and Data Sharing Agreements are in place between the Department for Education and all partners who will have access to personal data in order to deliver the programme.

A full list of partners who may act as Data Processors for the personal information you provide are as follows:  

  • Natural History Museum
  • Royal Horticultural Society (RHS)
  • Royal Society
  • Learning through Landscapes
  • Royal Geographical Society
  • National Biodiversity Network Trust 
  • Ecorys 
  • Esri

As the lead partner delivering the programme, the Natural History Museum may also share the information collected with relevant suppliers, contractors or service providers who help to provide necessary products or services, for example: the supplier of the National Education Nature Park website (manifesto); the customer relationship management system used to store participant information and send email communications about the National Education Nature Park (Campaign Monitor); and analytical services that enable us to evaluate use of the National Education Nature Park website and improve its performance and content (Google Analytics). 

What data will be collected, how it will be used and what lawful basis is used to process the information?

If you choose to register for your educational setting (e.g. school or nursery) to take part in the National Education Nature Park programme, we will collect the following information, some of which would constitute personal data:

  • Name 
  • Staff email address 
  • Additional backup school email address
  • Job title
  • Postcode of educational setting
  • Confirmation you are over the age of 18
  • Information about which key stage you mainly work with
  • Information about which nature-related programmes your educational setting currently participates in

The collection and processing of this information is based upon the legitimate interests lawful basis and it is required by the Department for Education and other project partners for the purpose of administrating, managing and evaluating the programme, and contacting you about the Nature Park and Climate Awards. This will include sending you both email newsletters about the project, and automated emails prompting your education setting through the Nature Park and Climate Awards journey. The information will also be used to evaluate the programme, and to contact you about any case studies or stories you share about your experience. Where relevant, the information may also be used to create an account for you in systems run by partner organisations that enable you to take part fully in the programme,  for example setting up an account with Esri to give you access to free ArcGIS mapping tools.

If you choose to register for your educational setting (e.g. school or college) to take part in the National Education Nature Park programme and you wish to apply for a grant towards the costs of participation, then you will also need to provide the following information in order  to apply for the grant:

  • Name of the staff applying
  • Staff email address 
  • School name 
  • School address and postcode
  • School URN

Grant payee bank account information
Your grant application will be processed and managed by RHS on a system called FlexiGrant. Your name, email address and the bank details will not be shared outside of RHS.  Other data in the grant application form may be shared with DfE and organisations in the National Education Nature Park project listed in section 1 in order to evaluate and iterate the programme and ensure the best possible experience for participants. Please click here for more information on how your personal data will be processed when you apply for the National Education Nature Park grant. 
 

If you are not registering to take part in the National Education Nature Park programme, but are interested in signing up for our general newsletter to stay informed about the programme, then we will collect the following information, which would constitute personal data:

  • Name 
  • Email address

The collection and processing of this information is based upon the consent lawful basis. This information will be used to send you email marketing about the National Education Nature Park programme – you can of course unsubscribe at any time by following the unsubscribe instructions in the email.

If you are a member (e.g., a staff member or a pupil) of an educational setting that has registered to take part in the National Education Nature Park programme, then it is possible that photographs or film taken of you during Nature Park activities or events may be used by the Department for Education and other project partners for marketing, promotional, publicity, press and other general communication purposes. If the film or photos are taken by the Department for Education or other Nature Park project partners, then a parent or guardian will always be asked to sign a photo consent form for anyone under the age of 18, and there will always be the opportunity to decline to be captured on photo or film.

If the film or photos are taken by the participants themselves, or staff in the educational setting, then it is the responsibility of those individuals who are capturing the film or photographs to ensure that the correct consents are in place before the images are shared with the National Education Nature Park programme, where they may then be used by the Department for Education and other project partners for marketing, promotional, publicity, press and other general communication purposes.

Via the National Education Nature Park website, you may also have the opportunity to sign up to receive email marketing from the various partners involved in delivering the programme, for example the Natural History Museum and the Royal Horticultural Society. Where this is the case, this will always be based on consent and you will be able to unsubscribe at any time. If you do choose to sign up, the partner organisation will be the Data Controller for the name and email address that you provide – this will always be made clear to you at the point of sign-up. 

How long will your personal data be held for?

The National Education Nature Park programme is currently planned to run until September 2027. Your data will therefore be retained until this date, at which point the Department for Education will retain the data for their retention period of 7 years. 

How will your personal data be kept safe and secure?

The personal data that you provide via the Nature Park website is kept safe and secure in accordance with the Cyber Essentials security standard. Cyber Essentials is a United Kingdom certification scheme which indicates that a minimum level of protection has been met as regards cyber security. The Cyber Essentials certification is backed by the UK government and overseen by the National Cyber Security Centre.

Will your data be transferred abroad? 

Our preference is to use systems and organisations that process and store data within the UK or European Economic Area. Where this is not possible, we will always ensure an adequate level of protection is provided for personal information transferred outside the European Economic Area. 

What are your rights under data protection law?

Under data protection law you have the following rights:

  • to obtain access to, and copies of, the personal data that we hold about you
  • to require us to correct any inaccurate personal data we hold about you
  • to require us to restrict our processing of your personal data
  • to object to us processing your personal data
  • to object to receiving marketing communications from us
  • to withdraw your consent to processing of your personal data
  • to require us to erase your personal data ('right to be forgotten')
  • to obtain from us the personal data which you have provided, in order to transmit it to another organisation ('data portability')

Please note that the above rights are not absolute, and we may be entitled to refuse requests where exceptions apply.

If you would like to exercise any of the above rights, please email [email protected]. The Data Protection Team at the Natural History Museum will then process your request on behalf of the Department for Education. 

Updated 22 September 2023